Is organ donation permitted in Islam? If so, is it also permitted while the person is alive, e.g. donating a kidney?

Assalamu Alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh

Thank you for your question.

Organ donation has been debated extensively in pre-modern and contemporary times. A number of Fiqh Academy’s across the globe such as the Islamic Fiqh Assembly of the Muslim World League in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have concluded that organ donation is permissible to save a life. The organ can be donated from one that is alive or one that is deceased. There are a number of conditions attached to the permissibility of organ donation, such as the below mentioned:

· The process of organ donation must uphold the dignity and honour of the human body· The donor should not be adversely affected in health and normal life by donating the organ· The organ cannot be sold· The donor must willingly give permission to donate the organ· There must be a genuine need to save or restore life

(See: Fiqh al Ḥalāl wa al Ḥarām by Muftī Khālid Saifullāh Al-Raḥmānī)

And Allah knows best.

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf BadatHadith of the Day ImamImam of the Islamic Foundation of Toronto and Director of Mathabah Institute